415 Bernie

First  viewed : Autumn  1978

Scrutinising  the  first  week  of  1980  in  TV  Times  jogged  my  memory  regarding  this  one  but,  as  it  clashed  with  Top  of  the  Pops,  it  must  have  been  the  first  series  I  saw  which  went  out  on  Mondays ( I'm  presuming  straight  after  Coronation  St )  in  the  late  autumn  of  1978.

Bernie  was  of  course  Bernie  Winters ( originally  Weinstein )  , who'd  just  ended  a  decades long partnership  with  elder  brother  Mike  who  disapproved  of  his  brother's  affair  with  a  much younger  woman. As  the  comic  half  of  the  partnership , Bernie  was  the  better  equipped  for  a solo  career   and  to  add  insult  to  injury , replaced  his  brother  as  straight  man  with  a  dopey-looking  St  Bernard  dog  named  Shnorbitz.. His  own  chubby,  gormless  appearance  was  an asset.

I  recall  enjoying  the  show  and  tuning  in  regularly  but  not  much  of  its  content  and  there's  nothing  on  YouTube  to  jog  my  memory.

Bernie  was  almost  50  by  the  time  the  second  series  ended  and  the  tide  was  going  out  for  his  style  of  comedy. The  show  wasn't  recommissioned  but  he  remained  on  TV  as  host  of  Whose  Baby ?  and  a  regular  panellist  on  things  like  Blankety  Blank  and  Punchlines.  He  died  of  cancer  in  1991,  leaving  Shnorbitz  to  his  friend  Richard  De  Vere , although   the  average  lifespan  of  a  St  Bernard  strongly  suggests  it  wasn't  the  same  one  from  the  TV  series.